


Legal Matters

by InsectKin



Category: The Grisha Trilogy - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Casual Sex, F/M, Lawyers, alcohol mention, mostly an excuse for banter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-14 00:48:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9149287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsectKin/pseuds/InsectKin
Summary: The Zoya x Nikolai one-shot AU where they are lawyers who casually hook up. Everything you didn't know you were waiting for.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Posted on tumblr a while ago, moving over here for the new year!
> 
> I'm not a lawyer.

Nothing made Nikolai feel as hungover as waking up in Zoya Nazyalensky's bed. It wasn't so much the effects from the alcohol that made his head pound – neither of them had been drinking last night – but his body warning him that it was morning and Zoya was once again her brutal, clever, cutting, self. 

He'd first found himself at her place after they'd finished working a case together a few years back. Their collaboration had begun with Zoya thoroughly and publicly eviscerating his work; Nikolai, both a skilled lawyer and the son and brother of the firm's two partners, had been unaccustomed to such treatment. He spent the rest of the case antagonizing Zoya and consequently the case was a spectacular success.

They passed the firm's holiday party the following weekend drinking champagne and exchanging banter that turned into barbs that actually stung. When she slid into a taxi at the end of the evening she'd left the door open for him to get in. He woke up the next morning hoping he wouldn't be hungover and with some expectation that Zoya had gotten her aggression out on him the night before. 

He had been thoroughly disappointed on both counts. 

Now, he groaned and mentally chastised himself for ending up in this situation yet again. If he were less occupied with running to his car whenever he got a late night text from her, he'd probably remember that his body would make him pay for it the next day. He opened one eye and gave a half-hearted glare at the paisley sheets. His forehead ached. 

"I know you're awake, Nikolai."

He rolled onto his back and let his cheek rest against the pillow, facing the space between them. Zoya was propped up onto one elbow and watching him intently. She'd somehow procured and put on a tank top, which he regretted deeply; his sigh was greeted with a perfectly-manicured-eyebrow raise and a slight frown on a pair of very red lips.

"Good morning to you, too, Zoya."

"I was beginning to think you were planning on sleeping all day."

"In _your_ bed?" Nikolai stifled a yawn. "I can think of much better ways to spend a day in your bed."

She tossed her dark curls behind a shoulder and twisted her lips into a smirk. "You wish."

"You don't?" 

"I'm not sure you could handle it after last night."

"That sounds like a challenge." He glanced down at his bare chest. "There are still parts of me that seem not to be completely covered in lipstick and bite marks if you wanted to –"

"Those are _not_ bite marks, Nikolai Lantsov, and you know it."

"Why don't you remind me exactly how you made them, then." He reached towards her waist and she swatted his hand away. 

"I have to be in the office working on the case for the Kerch minister in an hour. Some of us," she said, pointedly, "don't have the luxury of having a bunch of associates do all of our work."

Despite his father's general dislike of Nikolai and his clear preference for Vasily, Lantsov Senior had felt obligated to make his second son a partner in his law firm on the same schedule that he'd made his first – which was, of course, obscenely early in his career. When the new "Lantsov, Lantsov & Lantsov" sign had appeared on the building a few months ago Nikolai had been terrified – not so much of his new role, but of becoming like the other Lantsov partners: lazy, incompetent, entitled. _Boring_.

So her dig stung a little more than she'd intended. Or maybe just as much.

He turned on his smile. "That seems like a mistake on your part. Have you considered becoming a partner yourself?"

"I only spend every minute of every day trying to do that, Nikolai."

"If that's the case – " he stretched and wasn't able to stifle this yawn, "I hate to say it but I think you may be fucking the wrong brother. The first two Lantsovs rarely listen to me."

She snorted. "I figured _that_ out about a week after joining the firm." 

He glanced at her and saw amusement playing at the corner of her lips. She was stunning when she was being ferocious – and she was ferocious plenty – but she was even more beautiful when she didn't look like she was about to rip out his throat. "Does that mean, this whole time, you've been having sex with me _without_ an ulterior motive?"

"I didn't say that," she pointed out. "Just that I'm not counting on you to help me become a partner."

"Hmmm." This time when he reached for her she let Nikolai pull her towards him. He buried his face in the exposed skin between her collarbone and the top of her breasts and gave himself a few moments to enjoy the heat of her body and the way she smelled. "That might be the nicest thing you've ever said to me."

She snorted again and pushed him away before swinging her legs over her side of the bed. She'd also put on underwear. Nikolai was bitterly disappointed. "I'm going to shower. You can stay here but _don't_ ," she pointed at him, and he knew she was thinking of the last time she'd left him alone in her room, "touch any of my things." 

"Wouldn't dream of it." She sauntered into the bathroom, and as soon as she was out of sight he remembered how much his head hurt. He needed caffeine. He managed to find and put on his boxers before heading to the open door of the bathroom. "I'm going to head out and get some coffee. Would you like any?" 

She turned, surprised. "Yes, please. I take it –"

"Black, one packet of sugar," he finished. She gave him a crooked smile and he gave one right back. "I'm more than just a pretty face and almost impossibly sexy body, you know."

She nodded slowly, considering. Then: "What's _your_ ulterior motive, Lantsov?"

He shrugged and spread his fingers. "I don't have one. You're just fantastic in bed." That wasn't the truth, of course – the sex _was_ great but there were lots of less complicated ways he could get great sex than from Zoya Nazyalensky.

She rolled her eyes and went to turn on the shower, peeling off her tank top as she did. "I don't believe you," she called over her shoulder to Nikolai who was standing, mouth slightly open, wondering if he was seriously planning on leaving the apartment or if he should just lie on the floor watching Zoya take her clothes off for the rest of his life. "But for the record," she continued, turning around with a smirk that said she knew exactly what he was thinking, "that's also the nicest thing you've ever said to me."

When she closed the bathroom door, he rested his forehead against it – lightly, briefly – before going to locate the rest of his clothing. He'd have to look up where the good coffee shops in the neighborhood were; his favorite spot was too far away to make it back before she had to leave.

He was pleased to find that his headache was getting better already. 


End file.
